Federal agents have arrested a man suspected of issuing death threats to a slew of business titans, including film mogul Harvey Weinstein, and demanding that they send millions to an offshore bank account. The news was first reported by The Smoking Gun website . The suspect, identified as 25-year-old Vivek Shah, an actor living in West Hollywood, was arrested on Aug. 10 at his parents' house in Illinois. According to a sworn affidavit from Postal Inspector Joshua Mehall, Shah had been sending threatening letters to Weinstein -- co-chairman of the Weinstein Co. -- and four other moguls, in June and July.

"The Artist" has won the Oscar for best picture and I'm speechless. It's not lack of passion for the film that has robbed me of the power of words; it's that I felt so strongly that my thoughts were geared to how I would react should the worst happen, but like the flabbergasted editors from "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," victory was something I didn't expect. I knew, of course, that "The Artist" was considered the favorite, but I wasn't so sure. As someone who first heard about this project while it was quietly filming on the streets and back lots of Hollywood, I was intensely aware of how enormous a leap it would be for what is basically a French silent picture that didn't even think it would get American distribution to walk off with what the ABC telecast called "the most coveted award in motion pictures.

A roundup of entertainment headlines for Monday. It was a very good night for Harvey Weinstein at the Golden Globes. Four of his films won at the awards show. ( Los Angeles Times ) Strangely, Ricky Gervais was well-behaved during the show. ( Los Angeles Times ) Elton John seemed to have a beef with Madonna at the Golden Globes. ( Idolator ) Singer Lana Del Rey had an awkward introduction to the world on "SNL" over the weekend. ( Los Angeles Times )

September 25, 2011 | By Irene Lacher, Special to the Los Angeles Times

Oscar-winning documentary maker Michael Moore, 57, explores his early years as a provocateur-in-training in his new autobiography, "Here Comes Trouble: Stories From My Life. " The book is mostly about your early life and it ends at the beginning of your filmmaking career, which is how most people know you. Why is that? That will come in a future volume, the things I've experienced in Hollywood, the films and all of that. But I wanted to write a book of short stories that were just good reading, and I thought I've never seen a book of nonfiction short stories.

March 15, 2011 | By Melissa Maerz and Nicole Sperling, Los Angeles Times

Israeli-Palestinian politics often prove polarizing at the United Nations, but rarely does the furor involve Hollywood celebrities and power brokers, a red carpet and a film screening at the world body's own headquarters in New York. Such was the case Monday night when the U.N. played host to the U.S. premiere of director Julian Schnabel's new film "Miral," which follows a Palestinian girl's relationship with terrorism and Israel after the 1948 war for Israeli independence. The screening was met with protests from Israel's delegation to the U.N. as well as prominent U.S.-based Jewish groups including the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League, which were outraged that the world body would open its doors to a film that even its Jewish American distributor, Harvey Weinstein, describes as "pro-Palestinian.

Harvey Weinstein vowed he would return to the glory days atop the independent film business, and Sunday night he delivered on that promise. After Weinstein Co. nearly shut down last year, the New York studio's low-cost British drama "The King's Speech" took top honors at this year's Academy Awards, the first best picture victory for the movie impresario since 2002. As when "Shakespeare in Love" defeated "Saving Private Ryan" in 1999, Weinstein's movie prevailed over an early favorite from a big Hollywood studio, in this case Sony Pictures' film about Facebook, "The Social Network.

January 30, 2011 | By Rebecca Keegan and Nicole Sperling, Los Angeles Times

There are many roads to Oscar. But perhaps the surest ones lead through the offices of two moviemakers responsible for 31 of this year's Academy Award nominations, including those of the two best picture front-runners, "The King's Speech" and "The Social Network. " With brash personalities and refined tastes in film, producer Scott Rudin and studio head Harvey Weinstein represent an endangered species in an increasingly buttoned-up, corporate Hollywood. In a cinematic era in which studio films are driven by superheroes and sequels, they champion ostensibly uncommercial movies ?

The challenge now is making "The King's Speech" into the lingua franca. With a dozen Oscar nominations under its belt, the movie's executive producer and distributor Harvey Weinstein is ready to unleash a new marketing strategy that aims to rope in more movie-going commoners who normally wouldn't go near a historical drama about a British king. FOR THE RECORD: "The King's Speech": An article in the Jan. 26 Calendar section about efforts by executive producer Harvey Weinstein to broaden the audience for "The King's Speech," including considering alterations to win the film a lower rating, said Weinstein last year unsuccessfully appealed the Motion Picture Assn.

Bob and Harvey Weinstein are back in business with Miramax Films. The independent film-mogul brothers, who this year lost out on a bid to buy back from Walt Disney Co. the specialty label they founded, have signed a deal to partner with the new owners of Miramax to produce sequels and spin-offs to 10 movies that they made in the 1990s and early 2000s. Initially, Weinstein Co. expects to produce new installments of the Oscar-winning romantic comedy "Shakespeare in Love," the dark comedy "Bad Santa" and the 2005 remake of "The Amityville Horror.